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Deer season is coming up soon. Some of us will be shooting in the woods with quick shots at close range, others will have more time but will have to shoot further, in open country.

What kind of conditions do you work within, and what is your favorite gun/cartridge combination there?

If I get to hunt this year, it will be in open country. Currently I do not own a deer rifle of any description, but I lean toward the Browning A-Bolt that they are currently about to discontinue. - They went from ten or twelve models to two, this year. The "Stainless Stalker" model that I favor is no longer in production.

I'd like a Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker with the BOSS barrel tuner in .270 or 30-06, but I may have to look at something else, maybe a Weatherby Vanguard or a Sako.

Bet there are still a lot of deer ten with the old 30/30 the first smokeless powder cartridge.

That lever .308 you have been playing with should work fine for bambi.

In my part of the mitten we are limited to front stuffers, shotguns with slugs, archery and pistols.

Most go with a rifled 12 ga, a 44mag pistol, or an inline muzzle loader.

I have successfully taken many deer since I was 14-15 years old. Every one was with a 270 or 30-06 in Remington 721 or 725

Wow, bringing back a lot of memories of firearms used and whitetails and muleys taken.

The majority have been with the Rem 700 in 270 as that was my first and only "real rifle" for a lot of years. But I've used a few other calibers. 41 mag, 223, 243, 6mm, 270, 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm08, 7 IHMSA, 7mm08 Imp, 3006, 300 Win Mag, 338 Win Mag.

Then we can throw a dozen or so that fell to Zwickey's and Bear Razorheads.

good memories of past hunts and buddies.

For heavy brush the BLR 308 you were playing with will be great. I had one many years ago and it was a good brush gun. Then I started hunting in a area that I needed to make long range shots so I moved up to the Rem 7mm Mag.

I do not hunt for dinner anymore just at the meat market. Always remember the old timers when I was young and here in Michigan they used the .30/.30 or the .35 Remington, a couple of old favorites from long ago.

blue68f100 wrote:For heavy brush the BLR 308 you were playing with will be great. I had one many years ago and it was a good brush gun. Then I started hunting in a area that I needed to make long range shots so I moved up to the Rem 7mm Mag.

There's not much brush here, all the shots are at long range at mule deer or elk in the high desert, so I sold my .308 BLR recently.

Browning has ceased production this year on the A-Bolt Stainless Stalker, a favorite of mine, so I'm trying to work up a purchase of one of those in 270 or 30-06 with the BOSS barrel tuner, while they are still available NIB.

I have always used Leupold scopes, but I had such good luck with the Nikon Monarch 4-16x42 side-focus BDC that I have on my .243, that I intend to put the same scope on the A-Bolt when I get it.

I once had an A-Bolt Stainless Stalker in .300 Win mag that would put the first three rounds out of a cold barrel into 1/2" every time, using Federal premium 180 grain loads. My shoulders are too bony for magnums now, so I'm looking for a 270 or 30-06.

I won't get to hunt this year as I have too many irons in the fire, but next year I will almost certainly get to go.

I looked into getting a 260 Remington barrel for my M1A - but it looks like it would be prohibitively expensive, close to 900 bucks or so.

If my lathe was set up I could do it a lot cheaper - but it will cost me close to 900 bucks to get my lathe set up and running.

Catch-22!

So, if I can't sell the M1A and decide to keep it, I'll just have to be content with .308, at least for a while.

There are some .243 barrels floating around, but that's too light for the big game critters here. - My varmint rifle is a .243, as the shots are long here, with crazy wind conditions around the mountains that are beyond my ability to dope out.

It turns out that I was wrong about Browning ceasing production of the A-Bolt rifles... In fact, they have all of the regular models now plus a new one, a long-range hunter design.

I was fooled by Browning's IT department, which was re-doing the company website, and left it in a partially re-done state for several weeks for some reason. (sigh)

Considering all factors including my bony old-man shoulders, I have decided to order an A-Bolt Stainless Stalker ( or Medallion ) in .270 Winchester, with the BOSS barrel tuner.

They are shipping the BOSS equipped rifles with two tuner weights now days, one that includes a muzzle-brake - and one that does not. Lots of folks were embarrassed by their gun being so noisy, so Browning took this step to give BOSS shooters a less noisy option without losing the accuracy advantage of the tuner.

I'll be testing to see whether the tuner has to be re-tuned when switching from one weight to the other, a point that I have not been able to find out anything about.

If they have made them the same weight, then no additional tuning should be necessary. If the one with the muzzle-brake is lighter due to the holes drilled in it, then the BOSS may have to be re-tuned when swapping the two weights out. - Only one way to find out.

Shooting the .270 with the muzzle-brake should be about like shooting a .243. If nobody else is at the range when I am shooting ( often the case ) then I'll use the muzzle-brake. When other folks are around, other shooters or perhaps a hunting guide, then I'll use the tuner weight that has no muzzle-brake so I won't annoy them.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to swap them out without changing settings, but if I do, it will only mean that I'll have to remember two settings, and that won't be the end of the world.

I intend to develop only two loads for the gun, a long-range load suitable for mule-deer and elk, using a 150 grain premium bullet - and a practice/fun shooting load using a cheaper 150 grain bullet. I'll try to tweak the practice load so that it shoots to the same point of impact as the hunting load.

Years ago, I owned an A-Bolt Stainless Stalker in .300 Win Mag that was astoundingly accurate. It would put three rounds out of a cold, clean barrel into 1/2" at 100 yds, every time. ( Back then, I didn't have bony shoulders. )

If the .270 A-Bolt that I intend to order does that well, I'll be one happy shooter.

I'm still up in the air as to whether I want the Stainless Stalker, or the more attractive and easier to scratch Medallion model.

The Stainless Stalker was the first production gun from a major manufacturer to feature a synthetic stock. They did a good job on that, and the stainless metalwork is frosted, so it is very attractive.

The Medallion has beautiful gloss walnut with a rosewood fore-end tip. The gloss blued receiver is factory engraved and strangely enough, the Medallion is a bit cheaper than a comparable Stainless Stalker.

It's a tough call that I will probably put off until the last moment.

Were I to buy a centerfire rifle, I've long thought that .308 was a good all-purpose round. At today's prices, the rifle would likely be a Ruger American.

I've never been a hunter, but I could be if it was a necessity. Otherwise Bambi is safe with me.

The Ruger Americans are really nice rifles. I love the fat bolt design and rotary magazine.

the Ruger bolt gun may be ok, but in my experience, my savage bolt guns have shot good rithy out of the box with no mods at all.

I have to agree with th old man, my savage 308win. With a sported type bbl and the non accutrigger has done quite well for a $375 shooter. I get about 1 MOA with handloads.

My first into the Savage line was a Mark
ii
gl. they do favor us guys who shoot from the port side. At 50 yard it would consistently shoot CCISV to a MOA or less, not bad for a 200 out the door shooter.